Sustainability

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AGEC/FNR 406
LECTURE 35
Unsustainable Agriculture in the Philippines
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Sustainable Development
Definition A pattern of economic development
characterized by a condition in which some
arbitrary indicator indicator of HUMAN well
being does not decline over time. The
definition is anthropocentric. attempts to
combine efficiency equity
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Sustainability
Starts with a notion of a capital base from
which current and future well-being are derived.
Contains both economic and ecological
components key issue relative tradeoffs between
natural and other forms of capital
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Important Points
1. Informed by ecology, but human-focused. 2.
Emphasizes ecological limits and discontinuity 3.
Emphasizes conservation of critical components of
natural capital stock (e.g. critical
set-asides) 4. Focuses on limits to deterioration
of ecological assets at all levels
local-national-global 5. Asks what is the
carrying capacity of a system? 6. Asks what are
appropriate measures of resilience? 7. Questions
traditional measures of wealth.
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Indicators of Sustainability Most
approaches are consistent with benefit-cost
analysis. 1. Green Net National Product
(gNNP) 2. Measures of genuine savings 1997
World Bank report Expanding the Measure of
Wealth Key set of indicators for tracking over
time
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Key Indicators of Sustainability
Natural capital Pastureland Cropland Timber No
ntimber forest products Protected areas Subsoil
assets (minerals) Fishing stocks Human capital
(education) Social capital (institutions)
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• Ecological Economics
• Branch of environmental economics that takes as
  its foundations a strong interpretation of
  ecological sustainability. environmental assets
  are special. rejection of marginalist
  perspective concern about energy and
  materials use discounting future costs is
  unacceptable
• Irreversibility (cant restore natural capital)
• Uncertainty (systems poorly understood
• Scale (threshold effects, large-scale damages)

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Key Points
1. Alternative views of what sustainability
means 2. Views differ according to options for
substituting natural and manufactured
capital 3. Global measures are likely to be
imprecise 4. Resilience is a useful indicator,
but difficult to measure 5. "Green"
national income measurements would be a
first step they make SD measurable.
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Some approaches to SD
1. Control pop growth, especially in
environmentally critical areas
2. Ensure prices reflect both private and
social costs
3. Eliminate reliance on fossil fuels
4. Reduce pollution emissions and waste
5. Eliminate poverty, especially in LDCs
6. Slow rates of deforestation, soil erosion,
and fishery depletion
7. Develop new, appropriate "green" technologies
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UN Agenda 21
Plan of action regarding human-environment
impacts
Adopted by 178 governments at the UN Conference
on Environment Development (UNCED) in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992

Focus local participation, nine major groups
representing various special interests.
Follow-up World Summit on Sustainable
Development held in Johannesburg in 2002.